Bless him - Andy Garfield acts his heart out as Peter Parker. The script also gives Spider-man a sense of humour familiar from the comics and cartoons. And the meeting between Spider-man and Electro is tense, tragic, and almost believable.
Those points aside, however, too much of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 watches like Dawson's Creek. The teen angst and melodrama is broken only by CGI battles that look like computer game cutscenes.
And, except for a little background story on Peter's parents, we've seen all of this before in the previous Spider Man films, starring Toby Maguire. Who is - sorry, Andy - far more charismatic and believable as a super-hero.
This title adds little that's new, but faithfully retreads old paths in slightly different ways. With the result that there's little to surprise.
Green Goblin appears only at the end of the film, for about 2 minutes, then is gone. Similar for Rampaging Rhino. Their roles felt rushed, even wasted.
The confusing problem is why this entire series tries to tread so much ground from the Sam Raimi trilogy. After all, there were only 5 years between Spiderman 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man. And they tell the same story, in slightly different ways.
If Spiderman is such a long-running comic franchise, then surely there's more to the character than this?
Surely they can modernise it, too?
One of the annoyances of this film is the portrayal of Gwen Stacy. She exists only to define Spider-Man.
What she wants and thinks is not considered important. Peter dismisses her opinions because her father's is more important. Despite being pushed away, she'll drop everything to fall into Peter's arms, without any reserve.
This new reboot is going to have to try harder than that. Especially when it relies so much on melodrama, and special effects that are hard to believe in.
